The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing mail, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for scanning documents for various characteristics indicative of the document-type to identify the document-type of each document being processed. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining whether a document is a check, money order or invoice based upon the magnetic markings on the document.
Companies such as public utilities and credit card companies receive a large number of payments from customers each day. Typically, a customer payment includes a payment stub or invoice and a corresponding check or money order. It is desirable for such companies to process the payments rapidly so that the checks and money orders can be deposited as soon as possible. Devices, such as the System 150 manufactured by Opex Corporation in Moorestown, N.J., process mail received by companies by extracting the documents from the envelopes, and reordering, reorienting and sorting the documents as necessary. The documents are then submitted to remittance processing devices that process the information from the documents in order to credit the payments to the customers"" accounts. Once the payments are entered, the checks and money orders are deposited by the company.
Currently, when payment documents are processed, the documents are often scanned to create an image of each document. After the documents are scanned, the document images are used during processing rather than the actual documents. However, often the scanned image of a money order is not clear because portions of the document are frequently printed with ink that does not produce a proper image. Consequently, these money orders must be manually retrieved to be processed. Additionally, for a typical batch of checks and money orders being processed, the checks significantly outnumber the money orders. Since the money orders frequently do not produce clear images, it is desirable to separate money orders from the checks to make it easier to locate a particular money order.